A Pet for Duo
by Reiprac Manna
Summary: 2X1, one-shot, implied bdsm, not to be taken too seriously...


A Pet for Duo!

The doorbell chimed as the front door was thrust open. In Duo´s Pet Shop for Wild Things- the place to go for any animal loving pet owner another peaceful working day was just beginning.

In his famous cheerful morning mood, Duo Maxwell sat behind the cash-desk and enjoyed his breakfast. It consisted of a giant mug of hot chocolate and an extra large whole grain cereal bar- with chocolate icing. (Some of his friends, who weren´t as enthusiastic as Duo in the morning, claimed that it was only possible to be so cheerful so early with such a sugary breakfast.) Normally, Duo´s morning routine wasn´t broken till midday when the first housewives stopped by to browse the shelves for pet food or cat litter or toys.

An early customer was unusual, but Duo was extremely devoted to his profession and loved all kinds of wild and dangerous creatures. His customers - especially the female ones who made up 90 percentof his clientele - profited by his extensive knowledge of exotic and not-so-exotic animals and fell in love with his sunny disposition.

So there was another animal lover in need of his advice! Duo looked up from his breakfast and while he was still munching on his cereal bar, prepared to greet his customer.

But when his eyes fell on the front door, no one was there... The door swung shut with a bang.

Duo listened into the room. There was the light tapping of footsteps behind the front shelves. Maybe some school kid who made a detour on their way to school. Well, he was none of those pushy shop assistants who bounced on everyone and everything that dared so much as set a foot on his linoleum.

On the contrary, he was a patient, polite and reserved man, who could wait his turn. And if his foot was lightly tapping on the floor while he was waiting, it was just the energy boost from the sugar... For a few minutes nothing happened and Duo considered going back to his breakfast. His hot chocolate was slowly growing cold. And nothing was worse than cold hot chocolate... if it could still be called hot chocolate seeing that it was really more like cold chocolate... well, he ought to think about that someday.

Duo´s customer was sure staying for an awfully long time behind the shelves. Ten minutes later... and still she or he was nowhere in sight. A dawdling school kid then. Duo´s foot tapped harder... All of a sudden there was a crashing sound behind a shelf. Duo´s foot stopped.

Jumping from his chair, he almost fell over the cash-desk and into his breakfast. From behind the front shelf emerged a disheveled mop of dark hair and a second later a boyish face, which was blushing furiously. A small person crawled into his aisle. It was not exactly a school boy... but it also couldn´t be much else. On his scuffed, cracky floor sat a beautiful boy, 16 or 17 of age, but slight limbed and smooth skinned.

Before Duo could so much as blink, the apparition scrambled to its feet and tried to resume what was obviously meant to be a nonchalant stance. Thrusting his chin forward, the boy schooled his face to pseudo determination while surreptitiously tucking at the hem of his shirt and sauntered over to the cask-desk as if nothing had happened.

"I need a collar.", he said, quietly, but with defiance, trying his best to look dignified.

"Um... erm... sure, I mean… A collar!"

The boy nodded jerkily.

"Well..." Duo scratched his head. "You.. um.. " He vaguely gestured towards the shelf the boy had just crept from. "You... were... at the right place over there."

The boy´s face grew even redder. He mumbled something.

"You what?"

He mumbled a little louder.

"Oh!" The collars for canines hung from the top pegs of the shelf and considering his height, the boy really was too small to reach them. Duo grinned. Here was an opportunity to earn the boy´s telephone number!

"Don´t worry!" He sniggered gleefully. "I´ll give you a hand, pal! My name is Duo by the way. See..." He pointed a finger to his colourful and handwritten name tag. It read: "Duo Maxwell. I love to answer your questions!"

The boy stared at him oddly.

Duo stared back expectantly.

"And _your_ name...?"

"Hn... That´s none of your business."

"Oh, please!"

"..."

"Please!"

"..."

"PLEASE!"

The boy sighed.

"...um... it´s ... it´s ... Heero."

"Hero?"

"_Heero_."

"Well, that´s a strange name, but why not, Hero." The boy rolled his eyes.

"Um... okay, Hero, let´s get you a collar."

Duo preceded his customer to the shelf and easily reached up to get a medium-sized leather collar for dogs. It had a lovely blue color and the softest interior leather lining. "Here you go. Is this what you thought of?"

Heero gave the collar an appraising look. "It doesn´t scratch.", he said.

"Well... it´s not supposed to. You wouldn´t want to hurt your animal friend, now would you?"

The boy handed him the collar. "I want it to scratch.", he told Duo firmly.

"Now, listen, in my shop, you get no scratchy collars!"

Heero twitched nervously. Looking at the floor, he cleared his throat. "Do you have thorn collars... with steel spikes?"

"Spikes?--! Isn´t that a little militant?"

The face of the boy turned as red as a beet root, but it remained blank.

"Okaaay..." Duo searched the pegs for a thorn collar.

"A large one."

"What type of pet do you have anyway?"

For a minute, there was a deep silence, then Heero wispered: "I haven´t... I mean... um... It would be a cat, Sir."

"Oh, a large cat, that´s for sure."

Duo´s hand bumped into something hard and he reached for it.

What he found was a bright red leather collar with double rows of shiny rhinestones, gleaming brass and a polished silver buckle in the center. The price tag read: "For Pets who Live in the Lap of Luxury." Well, hardly what the boy was looking for... Duo was about to put the pink monstrosity back on its peg when a hesitant, breathy voice from behind him softly asked: "M..may I have it?"

Duo turned around and regarded the boy with confusion.

"What?"

"T..the collar."

"_This_ collar?" Duo glanced at the thing and back to the boy.

"Yes."

"Um.. well, have it then."

Surprised, he watched as the boy took the pink collar with reverent hands, all but devouring it with eager eyes.

"I take it."

"It has no spikes... and what´s with..." Duo glanced briefly at the price tag. "... the "extra softly cushioned linings"...!"

"It´s lovely!"

"Oh... um... okay. Something else?"

The boy nodded, clutching the pink collar to his chest.

"A leash."

"... for a cat?"

The boy froze.

"... I don´t want to lose it.", he mumbled, peering nervously at Duo, then at the collar.

Well, the boy was sweet, but he obviously had a screw loose.

"A leash it is!", Duo relented. No use trying to talk sense into the boy. "What about cat food? Your pet´ll need it, especially if you insist on keeping it on a leash."

"Cat food...", the boy repeated, slowly, abashedly, as if he´d never heard of the word. "Eww... no, that would go too far..."

"Huh?"

"No! No cat food... please... I´ll buy it... another day."

"Okay, just don´t forget it. I´ll show you some leashes now. There was a new shipment this morning. Hold on, it won´t take long. It´s in the storage room."

The boy nodded imperceptibly, fingering his collar. "I...I´ll wait."

Always eager to please – and especially a customer who was as cute as this boy – Duo skipped over to the storage room.

"It won´t take a minute!", he sing-songed.

.-.-.-.-.-.-

Heero watched him from behind the collar shelf, fingers closing around his prize. As soon as the other man had disappeared behind the door in the back of the shop, Heero bolted for the next aquarium. Excitedly, he held the pink leather collar against the skin of his throat.

An elated squeal resounded in the empty shop and on the algae-coated glass plate of the aquarium, the reflection of the boy´s face grinned.

.-.-.-.-.-.-

Back in the storage room, Duo cursed. The damned boxes with the new supplies were still taped shut. Hurriedly, he grabbed the first box and ripped it open. No leashes there! ... but bogie wheels for guinea pigs... the next one contained an aviary... and heated terra cotta bird baths... Duo grew frustrated. He hoped that the boy hadn´t grown tired of waiting and left without giving him the chance to ask for his phone number. He ripped the tape from box number three. Finally! The leashes! Selecting an armful of the fancier ones, Duo made his way back to the shop.

"Sorry for the delay. The boxes were still packed up and—" He stared in shock at the collared boy in front of his piranha aquarium... who was now desperately trying to get rid of the pink thing and nearly choking himself to death in the attempt.

Duo shook himself and hurried to the troubled boy. "Wait! You´re hurting yourself!"

With a practiced motion, he managed to free a blue-faced Heero from his collar. Gently stroking over the skin of the boy´s throat, he asked: "You... do that often?"

Heero didn´t meet his eyes. "I-i... just started..."

"Well, I don´t want to offend you, but that´s obvious."

"Really?"

"... um... yes, it is. Don´t you have... someone who shows you how to do such things?"

"You mean a ... a..."

"Yes."

Heero shook his head regretfully.

"The heck with it...", Duo thought. "I wanted his phone number anyway. Can´t possibly be very different from taking care of a real pet, can it?"

"Well, Hero...", he said aloud. "It just so happens that I´m _very_ proficient in this field... "

The End


End file.
